


No Returns

by taylor_tut



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Cuban Lance (Voltron), Gen, Hunk & Lance (Voltron) Friendship, Hunk (Voltron) is a Good Friend, Lance (Voltron) Angst, Lance (Voltron) is a Mess, Post-Break Up, Sick Character, Sick Lance (Voltron), Sickfic, reference to shance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-20
Updated: 2018-03-20
Packaged: 2019-04-04 23:58:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,488
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14031684
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/taylor_tut/pseuds/taylor_tut
Summary: College AU: After Shiro and Lance break up, Lance is a bit touchy about it. The flu can only make that worse.





	No Returns

Lance’s head was spinning from the moment he woke up. 

Normally he didn’t nap during the day, but his head had been pounding when he’d gotten out of class, so he thought he could sleep it off.

He was wrong. So, so wrong.

Taking out his phone to text Keith, he squinted against the light it emitted and found that Keith had already texted him just a few minutes ago.

"are u wearing pants?"

Psh. Lance never wore pants at home--Keith liked to keep their dorm way too warm. He typed a response.

"why is the Queen coming over"

Seconds later, his phone buzzed again--Keith never replied this fast.

"no.

don't hate me."

Lance sighed. 

"...why"

"shiro's coming over."

Lance cursed. 

"W H Y" 

Lance hadn't spoken to Shiro since they'd broken up two weeks ago, and he was honestly still pretty hurt by how the whole thing had gone down. They'd been together for six months, and so Lance had thought that it was time to tell Shiro that his plan was, after college, to move to be closer to his mom and abuelita in Cuba. 

Shiro thought that was a pretty big fucking thing to keep a secret, and Lance had argued that it WASN'T a secret, but that they'd never talked about their future in that much detail before, and the argument had gone on nearly all night, increasingly angry and accusatory, until Shiro had told Lance to go home. 

The next day, he'd found an unlabeled package outside his door, containing his toothbrush, a few books he'd lent Shiro, and all the clothes, shampoos, soaps, and razor he'd left there over the months.

Fuck that.

His phone buzzed again.

"i know, i know, i'm sorry. we're partners on that economics project and it's due tomorrow"

Lance frowned. Right. When they'd partnered up a month ago, it had made sense, since Shiro was around Lance and Keith's dorm all the time anyway.

But now... 

"just use the library or something!"

Lance wasn't feeling well enough to go to a cafe or out with anyone to hide.

"can't. we need my desktop."

Lance sighed. 

"fine. ETA?"

Keith's keys jingling in the door answered the question for him.

"Are you decent?" Keith asked, hesitating in the doorway. Before, that wouldn't have made a difference--it was nothing that either of them hadn't seen before. But now... Keith didn't feel right about letting Shiro see Lance less than fully-clothed.

"One sec," he groaned. Sitting up made his head spin, but he managed to stagger over to his dresser and pull on a pair of sweatpants from the drawer. "Okay," he called, "come on in."

Shiro rushed in, making a very obvious attempt to look too busy setting down books and arranging supplies on Keith's desk to greet Lance.

"Hey, Keith," Lance said; "hi, Shiro," he bit the bullet.

"Mm," Shiro hummed affirmatively, nodding without looking up. Yeah, Shiro was still pissed. But not even being on speaking terms? Now, that was just childish.

In his racing, angry thoughts, Lance had missed Keith studying him up and down.

"Were you still sleeping?" he asked with a frown. Lance rarely napped at all, and when he did, they never lasted more than 20 minutes, and Keith had been gone for two hours.

"Yeah," he admitted, "I'm not feeling so hot. I think I might be coming down with what Hunk had last week." 

Shiro hesitated from his setting up of the supplies, if only minisculely, as if he had to remind himself not to be concerned. 

Keith took a step back--he was never good with sick people. "You really look like shit," he said. "Pale and... sweaty."

Lance shrugged. He knew he probably didn't look great, but he was pretty sure that by this point, he couldn't look as bad as he felt. Just being up and about for getting dressed and having this conversation was draining and had left him exhausted and fatigued to the point of nauseated. 

And it wasn't good that he was sweating, because he felt freezing. 

"Ugh," he groaned. "Well, it's that time of year. Everyone's getting colds."

"Hunk didn't have a cold; he had the flu." Lance's eyes snapped up to look at Shiro, who'd spoken for the first time since entering the room. Though his words seemed concerned, they were orange with irritation. 

Lance blinked a few times. "Same difference," he argued, but Shiro shook his head, still looking angry. 

"No, it's not," he disagreed. "The flu is a lot worse. Plus, it's kicking people's asses this year. Do your muscles hurt?"

Not as much as this conversation, Lance thought, shifting from foot to foot. "Uh," he stuttered, "yeah." 

"He took over a two hour nap today," Keith added. Shiro grimaced. 

"Yeah, that's the flu. Go take something for it." 

Lance wanted to feel happy that Shiro was at least having a civil conversation with him, and maybe it was the fever that complicated his emotions, or the fact that he felt like shit, but god, damn. Two weeks ago they were in love, and now Shiro's just giving him annoyed, unconcerned medical advice like nothing even happened?

Honestly, fuck that.

"You don't tell me what to do," Lance shot back. Okay, that argument was a lot less petulent in his head, but out loud, he sounded like a little kid, complete with a stuffy nose and everything. 

Shiro looked at him like he had three heads. "I know," he said, "but you're gonna want to treat it. Especially with your shit lungs."

Lance winced. That was something Shiro remembered from a conversation the first time Lance had ever gotten sick while they were dating and he'd been so concerned about how deep his cough was. He'd told him that he'd gotten pneumonia when he was ten and almost died, so now he got bronchitis or pneumonia pretty much every time he got sick. He never really talked about it because it had been pretty traumatic. Such an intimate little detail, such a guarded piece of himself, something Shiro had that he couldn't give back in a fucking cardboard box of everything else he'd left.

Fuck. That was it, wasn't it? That was why he'd been so fucking angry when he'd returned his belongings. Because anything Shiro could give back was nothing Lance cared that he'd given him in the first place.

"You know what?" Lance paused to cough harshly into his elbow, grimacing as he felt the infection already beginning to sink its claws in deep, "fuck you."

Keith gasped, not totally understanding how or why this had escalated so fast.

Shiro's jaw dropped. "Excuse me?"

"You give me a box full of things I left with you and then just don't talk to me for two weeks? That's shitty."

Shiro gritted his teeth. "Everything about this is shitty," he returned.

"Come on, guys," Keith interjected, "don't start this." 

Though Lance wanted to fight, he knew that Keith was right--plus, he was really too tired. The energy that the adrenaline had given him vanished and left him drooping on his feet. 

"Whatever," he muttered. "I'm going to Hunk's."

Keith offered a weak, apologetic wave. "Feel better," he called, wincing when the door slammed shut.

Lance already had tears in his eyes by the time he knocked on Hunk's door, and was already crying by the time it swung open.

"What--Lance?" he asked, his hands hovering worriedly over his shoulders before resting there gently, "what happened?" 

Lance shook his head, not quite ready to rehash the argument. Hunk's phone buzzed and he glanced down at a text from Keith.

"lance is on his way over. he has the flu. fought w/ shiro."

He smiled sympathetically. 

"You're not feeling well?" he asked, guiding Lance to his own bed. Lance shrugged, sniffling and wiping his nose on his sleeve before Hunk handed him a box of tissues. "Keith texted and said you've got the flu." 

Lance shrugged again, but Hunk's hand on his forehead provided all the evidence he needed, even without verbal confirmation.

"Yeah, that's a fever. I'm gonna get you something for it. I still have a lot of stuff from when you were taking care of me." 

Lance was hesitant to let go, but finally released Hunk's waist so he could pull a few pills from the bathroom and grab a water bottle.

"These should help," he said. Lance swallowed the pills and drained half the bottle of water in silence. "Wanna talk about what happened with Shiro?"

Lance shook his head. "Not really," he admitted. "I really just want to sleep."

Hunk fluffed his pillow and let Lance lie back, curling around him protectively as he turned on Netflix so that he'd have something to do while Lance napped. 

"You're a good friend, Hunk," he said tiredly, "the best."

Hunk hugged him tighter. "You too, buddy." 


End file.
